Chapter 74: Chapter 74

As soon as she saw Hadrian Veer, Shia also saw the man with an ash-colored hair, holding a small blue flame in his hands.

Soon enough, several men with twisted, possessed bodies started to surround them. In a heartbeat, they were immersed in an intense fight as Khailis, Langrion, Commander Rus and Ker began to draw their swords out, and the mage started to spurt frozen icicles from his palm. Someone started to shoot arrows in the midst of it. Many screamed and ran for their lives. It was, all in all, very chaotic.

Just like Marmie and Gaf and the other cursed ones onboard, Shia couldn’t use her powers under the guiding stone’s effect. Her stomach twisted and turned into knots, and she couldn’t focus at her opponents. The ship was being violently tossed at sea, which didn’t help in maintaining everyone else’s balance as each one tried to stay alive. Perhaps more than the effects of the guiding stone, Shia really was sea sick! All she really wanted to do was to throw up.

She tried to use Freya’s power, but she couldn’t steadily control it due to her physical state. Despite the cold sweats and her laborious breathing, Shia fended off the attacks of the possessed bodies with her dagger and the hair pins she had thankfully saved beforehand.

Fighting the cursed scoundrels would have been an easy feat, but the possessed bodies were all innocent, and Shia didn’t really want to hurt them. She tried to avoid wounding them as much as possible. However, that tactic wasn’t effective. The possessed bodies started to claw at her. She tried to keep them off with a dagger, but it was useless. She couldn’t shake them away without wounding them.

An idea popped up into her mind.

Shia tried to climb up to an elevated podium at the helm of the ship. With much tossing and turning, she reached it. Once on top, she began scanning the crowd, looking for the youth that was possessing the bodies.

As soon as she spotted him in the crowd, she threw a hair pin at him.

The pin propelled by Freya’s power hit the boy by the shoulder, and he staggered to the ground. As soon as she did that, the possessed bodies tensed up and their attacks halted. This gave Shia and the rest some time to run to the side of the ship.

Shia reached the edge of the ship, and he saw Langrion did the same a few feet away from her.

“Go ahead, jump!” Langrion shouted at her. She nodded, climbing desperately on the rail. She was about to jump towards the sea when a hand began to clutch at Shia’s hair.

Shia yelped in pain. She frantically looked up and saw the detestable Hadrian Veed, snarling at her, his toothless mouth, twisted up in to a snarl. Blast him, his hands, seemingly beast-like in appearance, were clawing at Shia’s braided locks! He was pulling her upwards manically. Shia screamed in fright.

Shia tried to swing her dagger at him, but he was still far away. After inhaling deeply, Shia, while holding on the other end of her silver hair, swung her dagger and started to cut through her braid in a desperate attempt to severe herself from the monstrous claws of Hadrian.

After what seemed like an endless agonizing moment, her braid fell off. Shia then released her hands from the other end of her braid, and she felt her body falling towards the water.

She closed her eyes as she fell, bracing herself to feel the water against her skin anytime now, but it didn’t happen.

With a thud, Shia landed against a soft floor of what felt like a piece of rolled up carpet. She grasped at it with her hands. It was fur! She looked around and realized that she was up in the air, flying. Immediately, she bolted and sat herself upright.

“Ch-Chibi!” Shia yelled.

The massive mowngry barked at her, its furry body gliding effortlessly into the air. How in the world is this possible? How can this mowngry fly?!

Shia couldn’t believe what was happening. The mowngry can really fly, and he was already taking her speedily away from the ship!

After recovering from her shock, she tugged at his ear. “Chibi, we have to go back! Langrey and Khailis are still in there!”

“No,” a well-known voice shouted at her. When Shia looked at her left side, she was even more surprised to see Mage Silas encased in a bubble of bright light, hovering in the air. “You can’t go back! I’ll come and help them. The familiar will guide you to safety.”

After saying this, the mage went back into the direction of the ship. Shia was carried away to the opposite direction by Chibi.

“No, Chibi! We have to go back! Langrion and Khailis are still there! We have to help them!”

The mowngry barked twice before swivelling in the air back to the direction of the ship.

As soon as they were near enough. Shia scanned the site. There were numerous people by the water now. She took a quick look at the helm, but she could not find anyone that looked familiar.

She tugged at Chibi’s ears anxiously. “Let’s fly on the other side of the boat.”

Sure enough, Shia spotted Langrion at the other side of the ship when Chibi changed course. He was fending off attacks here and there. She called at him at the top of her lungs.

“Langrey! Over here! Langey!”

Hearing her voice, Langrion looked up at her. He immediately shouted when he spotted her. “Shia!”

“Langrey, jump! We’ll catch you!”

With full force, Langrion sent his opponents backward with his sword. He scampered by the rail, and he poised himself to jump.

It was a nerve wracking moment for Shia. She was afraid he wouldn’t make it, but with ease, Chibi swooped down to catch Langrey’s falling body in his back. There was a loud thud, but Langrion had safely landed at Chibi’s back in an instant.

“Thank the gods, Langrey -!”

Almost immediately, Shia saw an arrow coming right at them from the back. Langrion instinctively hugged Shia fiercely from behind, covering her head.

Langrion gasped. Shia scampered to look behind at Langrion’s face. It had fallen deathly pale.

“Langrey, talk to me. Are you alright?!”

“I’m al-” he had meant to tell her he was alright, but he had coughed out copious amounts blood at her neck instead.

“No, Langrey!” Shia said, her heart pounding like there was no tomorrow in her chest. She felt Langrion’s arm going limp, and his body arched forward into hers, as if he was losing his consciousness. Shia wounded Langrion’s arms immediately around her waist, and stroked Chibi by the ear.

“Chibi, fly faster please!”

Shia could feel Langrion’s hands turning cold under her grasp. His breathing had become laboured, and his body was getting heavier and heavier against her back. She couldn’t see where the arrow had hit him, but it must have targeted at least one vital organ like his lungs or his heart.

“No, Langrey! Stay with me,” she cried, blurring her vision entirely with her tears. She wanted to wipe them away, but she was clasping Langrion’s arms in her left hand lest he falls down from the back while her other hand clasped a wisp of Chibi’s fur.

It was almost dusk now. Shia didn’t know how far or fast they had been flying. All she could see was the blurry but endless stretch of water across her. She didn’t know where Chibi was headed, but she knew they needed to land somewhere soon.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shia saw something hovering in the air. She blinked her eyes several times, but the same vision popped ahead. Her eyes weren’t deceiving her, right? The floating thing was really an island!

There was only one known floating island in the entire world. It was Teotroly – the Land of The Gods!

Stories said that Teotroly was invisible to ordinary people, and only those who were nearing their deaths would be able to see it. Shia’s was wildly frightened, but if they do not land on this strange place, Langrion might not be able to survive. He might really die!

“Let’s fly faster, Chibi. Langrion’s ill,” Shia said, urging the mowngry further. Chibi barked twice as an answer. He flew faster.

As soon as they hovered over through dry land, Chibi swooped down and landed on a sandy piece of soil over the edge of the island. He slid his behind and shook his back, forcing Shia and Langrion to slide down on the ground.

“Chibi, what are you doing?”

Chibi only barked at her in response. As soon as they were off his back, he rose up into the air again and flew towards the sea where they had come from. Shia, feeling a bit bewildered by Chibi’s action, could only look at him until he disappeared from her view.

It took a moment before Shia remembered Langrion. She laid him on his side, and took a look at the arrow in his back. It was lodged firmly at the center of his chest. She felt for his pulse. It was still there, but it was very weak.

Shia didn’t know how to pull the arrow safely away from his body. She knew it could damage him more if she did it unskilfully. She probably needed to find a doctor soon, but she couldn’t just leave him there.

She waved her hands up in the air. She was trying to wield plants that she could use to cure Langrey, but nothing happened. She tried again, concentrating more this time. She tried one more time, but nothing happened.

“Oh no...” Tears had begun to well in her eyes once more. Shia realized that her power wasn’t working. She wouldn’t be able to command the plants and make him some medicine for the mean time. What should she do?

Suddenly, Langrion stirred. He started to claw at his chest.

“Langrey, what’s wrong?”

Langrion started to scream, his hands coming up to his chest. His eyes were beginning to emit a reddish light. Amidst his kicking and thrashing about, She was able to rip away the fabrics that covered his chest. She starred in horror at the Mark of the Beast that was becoming more and more visible at his skin by the minute!

Shia tried the only method she knew to make the mark disappear, just like last time. She quickly touched the mark, and almost immediately, the skin in her palm burned.

She withdrew her hand in an instant and stared in horror. Why was nothing happening at the mark? She tried touching it one more time, and immediately, the scorching pain began again. She tried to resist it as long as she can, but nothing seemed to happen.

Langrion just continued to thrash about, his skin almost bloodless now. When she withdrew her blistered hands one more time, she saw that the mark was still there.

“Langrey!...”

Up ahead, Shia heard a familiar bark. Chibi was returning, and he was not alone. Mage Silas was also flying beside him.

“Come quickly! Something’s happening to Langrey!”

“What’s happening,” the mage asked anxiously.

“Langrey’s mark is appearing again, but I can’t use my powers. Please do something!”

Mage Silas looked at the mark in his chest, and he immediately understood. He shook his head.

“The Mark of the Beast is Sirion’s power. The protection magic of Teotroly is acting against it. We won’t be able to stop it...”

“What? He’s in pain! We have to do something!”

“No, we can’t. Sirion wasn’t meant to return to Teotroly.”

Shia reached out her blistered hand to touch Langrey’s chest, but the mage caught it.

“Don’t touch it! You might die too!”

“I’ve touched them twice already!” She flicked his hand away and clasped Langrion’s chest tighter than ever before, making the searing pain start again.

Shia had no intentions of letting go. If Langrion will die, then she won’t be just watching it. She’ll just come along with him too...

Suddenly, a white light started to come out of her hand. She wanted to see what will happen after, but her consciousness had already ebbed away, and she felt her head crash down into the sand beside Langrion.